Taylor Swift helps get London into the Christmas spirit

Euronews

Country-pop star Taylor Swift has had the honour of helping to kick start the festive season by switching on the Christmas lights at a shopping centre in London.

Thousands of fans packed into the Westfield shopping centre for a glimpse of their idol, who was in town to promote her new album “RED” which has notched up the highest first week U.S. sales figures in a decade.

“Red” sold 1.2 million copies in its first week of release, giving Swift her biggest debut numbers in an already stellar career.

The album is the 22-year-old singer’s third to top the charts, following 2008’s “Fearless” and 2010’s “Speak Now.” She is now also the only female singer to have seen two of her albums sell more than a million copies in the United States in just one week.

Swift, who wore a long red dress, turned on the Christmas lights with a group of children and performed three of her hits – “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together”, “Love Story” and “RED” – to the delight of the crowd.

“Red” shot to the top of the iTunes charts just 36 minutes after being released in the U.S. on Oct. 22, and sold nearly 465,000 copies through Apple’s iTunes alone in its opening week.